Imeldific

Imelda Marcos, wise or crazy, beautiful or self-absorbed, evil or holy, generous or greedy, majestic or extravagant. Imelda is one of the most iconic personalities in the Philippines. People have had many views on this woman. To some she is the spawn of the devil. Even though she has been acquitted from all her cases, people still think she is pure evil. It is quite hard to like someone who lives extravagantly and uses the "it gives hope to the poor because I used to be poor" line as an excuse for her lifestyle. However, to others, she is like a loving grandmother, a saint, a beacon of hope to the poor, a bringer of beauty to the Philippines. Although some of these are obviously exaggerations, we cannot deny the fact that the case of Imelda is quite mind boggling. She exudes grandeur and a respectable nature, yet there's also something about her that fuels people's anger and instills fear. Nonetheless, it seems that she has remained low for the past decades and we could only hope that she and her children continue to do things that will help the country instead of causing it's downfall.

I really liked how the documentary about Imelda presented the 2 sides of the story and incorporated them together. Watching the documentary, I ended up getting very confused about my stand with the issues concerning The Marcos Regime and Imelda Marcos in general. The way I see it, the Marcos Family has always had good intentions for the Philippines; however it's quite impossible to please everyone. The Marcos Family has done wonderful things to our country but they tried too hard in pushing their goals even though many people disagreed with them. In terms of Science and Technology, I really believe that our country would have state of the art facilities to continue to make our country progress like the Bataan Nuclear power plant. However, many of their ideas and ideologies were executed in ways that did not appeal to the Filipinos. The family was power hungry and it gave the Filipinos many reasons to hate on them. Trying to stay in power and make things better only resulted to their downfall.

My hope for the Philippines is that we will continue to move forward from this time in our history and focus on the development of our nation while learning form our mistakes. Filipinos should aim to be more than just blind followers of a cause and be more critical about the choices they make whether it's about elections, social issues, or political regimes.

Cloning

Celina Mae Revalde

THX 2013-63774

                        Cloning has been one of the most controversial things that science has given the world. But what is cloning? In my own words and understanding, it is basically copying the genes of a person to create another exact same person. It’s like having a twin which looks exactly like you. The perfect replica of you. But, what really is cloning? Cloning is the process of producing similar populations of genetically identical individuals that occurs in nature. Clones are organisms that are exact genetic copies. Every single bit of their DNA is identical.

                         The first ever known clone was the one created from the sheep, Dolly. And that was way back in 1997. We could only imagine how long scientists have been studying about cloning. There are a lot of ways to clone and individual. Actually there are two ways known so far. One is the Artificial Embryo Twinning. It has the same process of creating twins but instead of growing the baby in the mother’s womb, scientists grow them on petri dishes. The embryos develop there for some time. After that, they are then placed inside the surrogate mother where they finish their development. The second process is the SCNT or the Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer. This uses a different approach than artificial embryo twinning, but it produces the same result: an exact genetic copy, or clone, of an individual. This was the method used to create Dolly the Sheep. Scientists have been conducting experiments in laboratories and sad to say, the process of cloning is not yet that successful.  They have been trying to find ways to improve and widen their knowledge about this. But, these past few years, their hard work had paid off and they are now in great progress and are discovering a lot. As what I have mentioned above, cloning is a very controversial issue. People often ask the question, “Is cloning even ethical? Is it something that we should study further into? Well it actually depends on the way you think. It depends with what you believe in. I have my own opinion about this as a Catholic but since we are not talking about the morality of the act of cloning but the science of it, I am now going to share some recent news about the cloning progress.

                             We all know that stem cell researchers are trying to look for ways to lengthen at least a human’s capacity to live. If not, they are looking for something great that could help the world. Here are some recent news that I have found.

• ·         Largest ever trial of heart attack patients begins.

Using bone marrow stem cells to prolong life

A total of 3,000 patients will be involved in the trial to test whether life can be prolonged by administering stem cells from the patient's own bone marrow. The stem cells are injected into the patient's heart within 5 days of suffering a heart attack.

• ·         Reconstructing faces using human stem cells from fat.

Growing cartilage using stem cells taken from the patient's fat

To do this, the doctors would take a small sample of fat from the patient and extract stem cells from it. The stem cells would then be placed onto a special ear-shaped scaffold, called a "POSS-PCU nanoscaffold."

The cells are treated with chemicals that encourage them to transform into cartilage cells, before being inserted under the patient's skin.

This new version of the technique reduces side effects and the chance of the new ear being rejected by the patient's body. It also makes the treatment less invasive, as cartilage taken from the patient's rib to build a scaffold does not grow back.

• ·         Ability to recreate heart muscle from scar tissue steps closer.

For their study, the team tried turning scarring cells called fibroblasts, obtained from mouse embryos, into heart muscle cells by growing them in gels of varying stiffness.

To begin the conversion of fibroblasts into muscle cells, they infected them with a virus carrying genes expressed by stem cells. These "transgenes" fooled the fibroblasts into behaving like stem cells. Having a tight community of these progenitor cells may have helped with the next step because when they are developing, heart muscle cells are also cosy with their neighbors.

After a week of allowing the cells to develop in the different gels, the researchers added a protein that spurs growth of heart tissue by signaling to the progenitor cells to transform into heart muscle cells.

A few days after this, some of the cell colonies were contracting spontaneously, like colonies of heart muscle cells.

References:

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/272580.php

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/273461.php

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/273022.php

http://www.geneticsandsociety.org/section.php?id=83

http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/cloning/whatiscloning/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloning

Reaction Paper: Imelda Marcos

John Jason B. Santillan
2013-03535

Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Marcos_visit_Johnson_1966.jpg

         The documentary showed what has become of  Imelda Marcos who was once the Philippines' first lady and was wife of former President Ferdinand Marcos. Throughout the film, I saw a glimpse of the immense power, wealth and influence the couple had on the Philippine political landscape. It was inspiring to see in detail the People Power Revolution and how it came to be. I felt empowered by the bravery and rhetoric of the Filipinos. The film showed the sequence of events that during and after the ousting of Ferdinand Marcos. It was both enlightening and saddening. The inspection of what's left of Marcos' property in the Malacanang Palace was shocking for me. I knew they stole a lot but actually seeing the extent really made me realize the gravity of their corruption. I disliked the fact the justice was so delayed to the point that Ferdinand Marcos died before any verdict was made. I understand that America was to obsessed with its Philippine military bases because it happened during the Cold War. What I could not understand was why given that the evidence is very clear, Imelda Marcos still has not been convicted to be guilty. The international community has sanctioned her but until now it's still unpaid. Within the Philippine state, cases against Imelda are still pending. What ticked me off the most is knowing that there off-springs have government positions right now in the Congress and in the Senate. I feel disappointed for my fellow Filipinos who have decided to forget about the Marcos' treachery and betrayal of the people in the past. The grave damage that they have done before is horrifying enough but knowing that the Filipinos actively allow the Marcos' to further perpetuate their motives by still electing them is regrettable beyond words.

DataStickies: Memory Device of the Future

John Jason B. Santillan

2013-03535

ABSTRACT

            In a world of constant innovation and technological advancement, data processing becomes way faster and data accessing becomes more and more crucial to our daily lives. However, our current systems, e.g. flash drives, memory cards and DVDs, bring a lot of inconvenience. Therefore, it’s high time for us to develop the more competent data transfer model. A new memory device that resembles sticky notes called DataStickies have been designed and conceptualized by Aditi Singh and Parag Anand.

Anand & Singh. 2013. Ease. [Image]. Retrieved from http://datastickies.com/

           

Anand & Singh. 2013. Design Concept. [Image]. Retrieved from http://datastickies.com/

PROBLEM

Our current memory devices have four main problems: (i) size – external hard drives are bulky and difficult to carry around; (ii) usability – flash drives can be difficult to insert into devices due to positioning and/or location of port; and (iii) expandability – a flash drive’s memory capacity is limited to the capacity that it had when manufactured and can’t be increased.

Anand & Singh. 2013. Redefine. [Image]. Retrieved from http://datastickies.com/

DATASTICKIES’ TECHNOLOGY

I.            HOW IT WORKS

DataStickies are made up of graphene, a ground-breaking new material which is a flat mono-layer of carbon atoms tightly packed into a two dimensional honeycomb lattice with a minimum thickness of one atom. At the tip, you can find the conductive layer and low tack conductive adhesive. The graphene layer containing the data is sandwiched by an upper and lower protective layer. Graphene is not only the thinnest material, but also the strongest known to exist. According to Lucas Mearian of Computerworld©:

Researchers at Rice University several years ago demonstrated Graphene Memory made from a layer of graphite only 10 atoms thick. The technology could potentially provide many times the capacity of current flash memory while withstanding temperatures of 200 degrees Celsius and radiation that would make NAND flash solid-state disk memory disintegrate. Graphene memory not only has the potential to offer higher capacity in smaller form factors, but greater performance than today's industry standard floating-gate flash memory, or even charge-trap flash memory.

Instead of plugging into a port, DataStickies are designed to be stuck on the proposed Optical Data Transfer Surface (ODTS). As data is being read from the DataStickies, the colored, translucent edges light up.

 

Anand & Singh. 2013. How. [Image]. Retrieved from http://datastickies.com/

II.         FEATURES

i.             Expandability – the low tack multiuse conductive adhesive allows stacking together for enhance memory capacity i.e. two 8GB DataStickies will turn into one 16 GB unit.

Anand & Singh. 2013. Experience. [Image]. Retrieved from http://datastickies.com/

ii.            Convenience – DataStickies can be stuck into physical objects that are coherent to the memory device’s content e.g. DataStickies containing Excel files can be stuck on your wallet, DataStickies containing PowerPoint presentations can be stuck on topic’s book page, DataStickies containing holiday pictures can be attached on one’s diary, and DataStickies containing songs and tracks can be placed on DVD covers.

Anand & Singh. 2013. Bridge. [Image]. Retrieved from http://datastickies.com/

iii.           Coherence – DataStickies can be easily modified into your desired color or design and are easily accessible because of its extremely thin body. DataStickies would come in a pad like a sticky note, but store many gigabytes of data.

Anand & Singh. 2013. Coherence. [Image]. Retrieved from http://datastickies.com/

            

CONCLUSION

In the course of human evolution, our needs and demands have always changed. As a result, technology has to evolve in order to adjust. At present, efficient memory storage and transfer has become vital to our computer-facilitated lifestyles. With the introduction of DataStickies, we can better function in our daily activities because of its features that target multiple aspects of data usage.

SOURCES

• http://datastickies.com/. March 2, 2014.
• http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9244880/Graphene_sticky_notes_may_offer_32GB_capacity_you_can_write_on. March 2, 2014.
• http://news.discovery.com/tech/gear-and-gadgets/sticky-flash-drives-work-like-post-it-notes-140109.htm. March 2, 2014.

Patent Pending, Recognition Lacking

          More than thirty years ago, a Filipino engineer named Daniel Dingel (his last name was spelled as either “Dingle” or “Dingel” in my sources) had been working on a vehicle that doesn’t need gasoline, diesel or petroleum to run. He invented a vehicle that requires something cheaper, cleaner and available even at home – water.

          Since 1968, Daniel had been working on this, trying to improve this invention until he gets enough recognition for this work, which can and will help prolong and improve lives of mankind. With the help of a very minimal current (that human skin cannot even feel), just enough to light a little bulb and to cause the atoms of water molecules to split up, fuel can be formed and used to run a car.

          Engr. Daniel’s invention is really fuel-efficient, since it uses only a 12-volt Motolite^TM battery to split the molecules of tap water. One litre of it can make a car run for an hour, since Hydrogen is highly combustible as well. Explosive, it is, even.

            So why use Hydrogen as fuel if it is explosive? Well Daniel already solved that problem. He had this aluminium device that makes the car safe from explosion, and his invention near foolproof.

          Plus, his invention does not make use of carbon-based fuel, which, as we know, will produce Carbon monoxide and Carbon dioxide when mixed with Oxygen atoms. Thus, his invention promotes healthier air.

          It would have been a good invention, helping solve many of today’s problems, both economic and environmental. But why haven’t we seen or heard of water-fuelled cars in our country? If this can prolong life, help save cash, and simply improve our living, why can’t we have access to this kind of technology?

          Engr. Dingle has been offered by different companies from different countries to show them how his invention works and how he did it. But he refused most of them. The only offer he accepted was from Taiwan’s Formosa Plastics Group which had a good start. But the good start led to an estafa or swindling case filed against him which led to his conviction by the Parañaque Regional Trial Court (Lopez).

          Dingle questioned the decision even though he didn’t mind being behind bars at the age of 82 (Lopez). But sad to say, “The court found Dingel guilty of misappropriating the funds he received from Formosa Plastics Group” (Lopez).

          His invention, though, was not only open to large companies from other countries. His priority actually is the Philippines. He wanted his invention to be available to us, Filipinos. However, the Philippine government which was ruled by President Marcos and Pres. Aquino respectively were unable to make his invention accessible to the public. Marcos welcomed Dingle’s invention but his administration underwent a coup de tat. On the other hand, Pres. Cory, who rode with Engr. Dingle in his water-powered car, and was one of those who were very interested, that she even said that “this is the miracle I [Cory] have been waiting for,” (qtd. from Dingle) was sadly not in the position to approve of his invention being accessible to the public and informed Dingle of the sad news after two weeks of having the car tested.

          “It is not only a matter of scientific problem that we are confronted with. In fact it becomes more political than anything else,” said Dr. Ernesto Luis of DOST. Engr. Dingle restated that it is under the agreement between the IMF and the World Bank that this country is obligated to not make a product that will compete with theirs.

          Dingle still insisted that his invention be publicized. He stressed its benefits. But still it was a threat. And all he could do was hope that someday it will be recognized and used by people for their benefit.

          This story is a clear example of progress being blocked by the ones we think are the ones promoting it. And now, all we can do is to think of who else is out there who was not given the recognition he and his work truly deserved and what could have been if they were given due recognition. □

References:

“Daniel Dingle Water Car.” Panacea-BOCAF.org. Panacea BOCAF, 2009. Web. 9 Mar. 2014.

Hydrogen, dir. “Daniel Dingle and His Water Powered Car.” YouTube. Youtube, 14 Nov. 2012. Web. 9
          Mar. 2014.

Lopez, Allison. “Inventor, 82, Gets 20 Years for ‘Estafa’.” Inquirer.net. Inquirer, 20 Dec 2008. Web. 9
          Mar. 2014.
 

Sandru, Ovidiu. “Daniel Dingel’s working Water Powered Car Video.” The Green Optimistic. The Green
          Optimistic, 10 Feb. 2008. Web. 9 Mar. 2014.

Kinect VS Sports for Active Rehabilitation

ABSTRACT OF THE STUDY

            Moving in this era of technological breakthroughs makes anything possible. Science and technology has influenced – in the sense of realistic exaggeration – 99% of the world. It has overreached in a person’s lifestyle.

This study aims to see the effects of software technology, specifically, Kinect, on active rehabilitation. And also, how this new form of rehabilitation conforms to the traditional way of “real sports” rehabilitation.

           

REHABILITATION

            Rehabilitation is a treatment or treatments designed to facilitate the process of recovery from injury, illness or disease to as normal a condition as possible. Rehabilitation means to restore some or eventually all of the patient’s physical, sensory and mental capabilities that were lost due to injury, illness or disease.

Given the series of disabilities at a period of time, this process of rehabilitation has been growing; in the sense, technological breakthroughs enter the field for better efficient process.

ACTIVE REHABILITATION

            Active rehabilitation is a rehabilitation program where exercise and education are the foundations for therapy. Assessments on baseline strength and flexibility are taken for therapists to design a specific program specifically for you. Such programs may include core strengthening, postural re-education, functional training, cardiovascular endurance and flexibility. Rehabilitation is constant work done at home and with re-assessment visits to your therapist.

SPORTS ON ACTIVE REHABILITATION

            Sports have been greatly known to be a source of career or recreation. Although, over the years, sports have been accredited to be a source of so many health benefits and considered as therapy.

            Some sports workouts that have been loud enough for therapy are swimming, jogging, tennis,

            Swimming

                        Swimming is undeniably an all-over sport because nearly your whole body experiences movement – physically and internally. It keeps your heart rate up, builds endurance, muscle strength and cardiovascular fitness. It helps maintain a healthy weight, heart and lungs. It has been loudly known also as an effective therapy for scoliosis.

           

            Jogging, Running & Walking

                        Jogging is a popular form of physical activity and a form of aerobic exercise. Regular jog, run and walk activities help strengthen bones and muscles, improve cardiovascular fitness and maintain a healthy weight.

            Tennis

                        Tennis is a non-impact sport and has been proven to be a fun and great workout. It increases aerobic capacity, lowers resting heart rate and blood pressure, improves metabolic function, increase bone density, lower body fat, improve muscle tone, strength and flexibility and increases reaction time. Also, studies show that it is effective in reducing stress.

           

THE STUDY

Here is a short video showing how the new developed system for rehabilitation works.

The management of heart failure is the classic example the success of telemedicine. Hospital systems and clinics throughout the world have adopted solutions to measure daily weights and vital signs from patients. They have assembled teams to monitor the data and to communicate with the patients when trends suggest decompensation. Emergency rooms visits are prevented and healthcare costs are reduced.

The use of telemedicine for heart failure is a great step in the right direction, but there is definitely room for improvement. The problem with most systems is that their philosophy revolves around doctors or nurses siphoning data from patients and returning directives. This approach does not promote patient self-efficacy and is costly because of the heavy reliance on professionals to interpret data and make decisions. It helps to keep patients stable, but it does not motivate them to improve their condition.

The Esoma Exercise System aims to shift cardiac rehabilitation to a patient-centered approach. Patients will play games powered by Microsoft Kinect and computer vision algorithms that recognize the execution of rehab exercises. 

Patients will wear physiological sensors while playing the games that monitor heart rate, blood oxygenation, etc. Rich feedback about their progress and improvement in physiological state will be embedded in the game to motivate self-efficacy. There will still be clinicians on the other side of the server, but they will act more as coaches that help patients make decisions for themselves based on the data. The system is being built as a CollaboRhythm plug-in so that it can benefit from the powerful tools for data visualization, communication, and social support.

Ryan Orendorff from Tufts has already built a prototype of Esoma that tracks typical cardiac rehabilitation exercises for patients with relatively poor reserve. He is developing algorithms that allow the system to be taught new exercise through example. The system will then be able to track those trained exercises for any patient. The next steps will be to incorporate the algorithms into a game, to incorporate the physiological sensors, and to integrate with CollaboRhythm.

KINECT

Kinect is a software technology under motion sensing input devices invented by Microsoft Xbox. It enables users to control and interact with their console without the need for a game controller, rather through using gestures and spoken commands. Kinect is on its eight generation now.

How does Kinect work?

Kinect is a combination of hardware and software contained within a sensor accessory The sensor is a flat black box that is on a small platform, placed on a plane surface.

The Kinect Hardware:

•  The color VGA video camera – used for facial recognition and other detection features.
• Depth sensor – An infrared projector and a monochrome complimentary metal-oxide semi-conductor sensor work together to see objects in 3-D
• Multi-array microphone – Isolates voices of the players from room noise. This allows the player to be a few feet away from the microphone and still use the controls.

 

  The video above shows the innovative applications of KINECT technology in active rehabilitation and therapy of child cancer patients.


CONCLUSION

            Sports therapy and rehabilitation is basically concerned with musculoskeletal conditions that arise from physical activities and not internal health disorders. Given that Kinect technology conforms to rehabilitate the latter – internal health disorders (and maybe possibly also physical injuries but not really proven in this study, having a scope that is short term research only) – Kinect doesn't overtake the essence of sports therapy so much. In fact, Kinect technology is even so less strenuous than physical sports therapy.

            Studies show that the development of Kinect in the field of active rehabilitation has been efficient, effective and entertaining. It enables the patients to experience therapy in a less difficult manner and at the same time the can undergo therapy in the active presence of their family.    

            In conclusion, science, technology and society in this study come hand in hand for the benefit of health, lifestyle and social relation

REFERENCES

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinect
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/microsoft-kinect2.htm
http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Rehabilitation
http://www.prospects.ac.uk/sports_therapist_job_description.htm
http://www.ptworks.ca/services/rehab.php
http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Swimming
http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Tennis?open
http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Running_and_jogging?open




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